King County Democrats/Brainstorm
The below wiki is for collaboration around the King County Democrats communications systems. Goals Users and Scenarios Below is a list of potential users of the King County Democrats communications systems: * Local Guest - an unknown user from within King County * Local Activist - An activist from the area who may be a PCO and may occasionally attend LD meetings, or may be involved in a progressive (issue)campaign that needs to get the word out about an action or event * Elected Officials (and legislative staff) * Candidates (and campaign staff) * County Officers - county party officers who need some access to information * County Admins - who are active in creating, editing, or managing communications activities & infrastructure * LD Power User - (LD Chair and/or designees) We may also want to consider: * External party officers - Party officers from state level or from counties outside of King County * Non-Local Guest - an unknown user from outside our area Short term goals * Establish a "Communications Committee" with a core of activists active for hours per week, sub-groups of activists active for hours per month, and extended membership of occasional participants and contributors; There should also be room for people interested in time-scoped projects * Inventory existing communications infrastructure so we don't build from scratch something that we already have available * Address feedback from the November 2006 website survey * Begin a user-centered design process (i.e. start brainstorming) for KC Dems communications infrastructure **Determine list of invited users and guests **Set time/location for meeting, send out invitations, etc. Long-term goals * Execute on the user-centered design process (prioritize, design, develop, test, and iterate) for building KC Dems communications systems * Use whatever infrastructure we have in place to drive Democratic political activism General Information The KC Dems website should be a source of general information including: * Contact information for officers and the office * Governing documents (Charter, Bylaws, etc) * PCO list * LD list & links * List of elected officials within King County & representing King County voters * Blog (See below) * Event calendar (See below) Logo The logo of the KC Dems is a kicking donkey with the letters KCDCC and can be found in the top left-hand of the KC Dems website. Changes to this logo require approval from the Chair or a body designated by the Chair. Blog / Announcements Having a place where people can post organization announcements (and comment) is important. The KC Dems "blog" is NOT Washblog, Horses Ass, or Daily Kos. It is the (hopefully frequent) voice for semi-official comment from the King County Democrats. Examples of content to post: * Meeting agendas * Meeting minutes / summaries * Press releases * Opinion pieces by members * Committee information * Major event announcements (we have the Community Calendar for general events) * Media Watch The following people should have the ability to post without moderation to the 'front page': * County Chair * County Communications Vice-Chair * County Rapid Response Chair However, these should not be the only voices on the blog. Other Democrats from general activists to LD Chairs should be able to submit posts for the KC Dems blog including: * General activists *LD officers and chairs *County officers and committee chairs *State party officers * Elected officials We should establish a system and policy for handling these posts. We may also want to consider having "guest bloggers" with ability to post directly to the KC Dems blog. Everyone should be able to comment on blog posts. * To prevent spam comments, we should use a human interface check or require an ID. We currently use Windows Live ID (aka Passport) which requires an initial human interface check and zip code to create an account. * To minimize flame threads, we should not allow anonymous posting. Users should still be able to maintain personal anonymity through use of a pseudonym account, but being logged-in should be a requirement to post. Community Calendar The calendar system underwent a major overhaul on December 23rd, 2006. Details are at: http://kcdems.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!E33779AD7615F11!1621.entry The new system includes: * Anyone can submit an event * Admins can approve or delete submitted events * Admins can directly submit events * Events are stored in a Database and rendered on the homepage, a monthly calendar, and a new "manage" view which allows users to sort by a number of categories. Future Features Potential future features for the Calendar: * Output of events in other syndication formats like .ics and/or iCal * Mapping intergation * Ability for admins (or submitters) to edit submitted events Other Considerations We previously looked at Google Calendar and other calendaring or events systems like Zvents and Eventful. Pros to these systems are the professionally maintained back-end. Cons include the need to write custom code to integrate their data (via POX or SOAP API) into the KC Dems website "wrapper." Candidate List During the election cycle, the KC Dems website should be a place to find listings of candidates (and links to candidate questionnaires) :Important questions to discuss: #For partisan elections, clearly we only allow Democratic candidates, but how do we handle this for non-partisan elections? #What levels of elected office should we get involved in, and which should be handled by the LD? #How can we encourage other jurisdiction level organizations (like city) to form of the PCO's and officials living in those cities, and how can we give them the support that they need? #What is our policy on notification for potential early endorsement actions? These questions are not solely "Communications Team" questions but should be answered by the broader KC Dems organization and have significant impact on the Communications Team. Activists Database Visitors to the website who want to get involved should be able to enter their information into the "Activist Database" and the information should be accessible to County and LD leaders and endorsed candidates. :Questions #How is the User list connected to the Activist list? By email address? #*RD: from a technical perspective, these are intentially two seperate tables so that activists do not require an email address or password :Ok, that makes sense. Can we link them through a relationship by email? Would that be worth our time? What could we do with queries with that kind of linkage? #How can we best coordinate our activist database with similar infrastructure being developed and implemented by the LD's within King County? #How can we, and should we, best coordinate our database with similar projects at the state level and in surrounding counties? What about the HDCC and SDCC? #* WA Dems key contact: Wes Beal #* SDCC key contact: #* HDCC key contact: #* Snohomish County Dems key contact: #* Pierce County Dems key contact #How can we, and should we, best coordinate our database with campaigns? #* Should we start conversations with EO's, staff, and consultants to better understand their systems? #How can we, and should we, coordinate with the national level party and committees? (DNC, DSCC, DCCC, DGA, DLCC) #*Will the DNC enable an API for their PartyBuilder tool? I'm not getting an answer. Chadlupkes 00:31, 28 December 2006 (UTC) Category:KCDems